A second look at G20 police assault

Peacenik said there was no police forensic analysis of the video showing the assault of Adam Nobody. Chief Blair just keeps digging himself a deeper hole. When will the officers who assaulted Adam Nobody be arrested? When will Chief Blair resign? When will the rule of law return to Toronto, and when will it return to civilized society?

By Rosie DiManno


I see you, Mr. Policeman.
I see your mustachioed face, the visor so helpfully lifted up.
I see your arm — in short-sleeve uniform shirt — pumping back and forth, brutally beating.
I see the baton in that hand.
And do you, Police Chief Bill Blair, recognize this cop? Was he one of yours, pounding on Adam Nobody that awful day, June 26, 2010, when peaceful G20 protesters were assaulted by some law enforcement thugs at Queen’s Park?
If so, what do you intend to do about it now, sir?
The Toronto Star has come into possession of a new piece of videotape shot by a bystander that afternoon. It is 12 minutes and 20 seconds long — 23 seconds of which capture a vicious cop pile-on, officers pounding on Nobody, a stage designer who changed his name two years ago from Adam Trombetta for the pun value.
Read on...

Walkom: The G20 protests and judicial farce

By Thomas Walkom

Those who accused the authorities of criminalizing dissent during Toronto’s ill-starred G20 summit got it only half right. As this week’s judicial farce demonstrates, the people in charge of public security during that raucous weekend went off the rails. They acted as if potential dissent were a crime.

How else to explain the numbers? During the summit, police arrested more than 1,100 people. Of those, some 800 were jailed — in some cases for more than 36 hours — yet never charged.

Of the 304 who were charged, the government now acknowledges that nine were fingered mistakenly. Another 58 more had their charges withdrawn or stayed Monday during a mass court appearance. The reason? There never was enough evidence to charge them in the first place.

In some cases, hapless Crown prosecutors tried to cover their embarrassment by striking deals with the accused: Pay $50 or $100 to your favourite charity and we’ll forget the charges.

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Yep the police went crazy.
Peacenik says it is time for an official investigation into police misconduct. If the police broke the law, charge them. Accountability. Isn't that what the media was preaching for the protesters? Isn't that what the Chief was promising for the protesters? How about some police accountability. Heads should roll.

Tory filibuster seeks to block hearings on G20 policing

Opposition accuses Tories of ducking scrutiny of their role in matter

Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are filibustering to block opposition efforts to launch hearings on policing at the Toronto G20 summit, accusing political rivals of seeking a platform to build sympathy for “thugs and hooligans” who rioted there.

Parliament is adjourned for the summer, and the opposition majority – the NDP, Liberals and Bloc – forced the Commons committee on public safety to reconvene on Monday to vote on whether to start federal hearings on the G20 security.

But during a two-hour meeting, Conservative MPs on the committee repeatedly requested speaking time to object to holding an inquiry now, and the Tory chair refused opposition demands for a vote. Opposition MPs together can out-vote the Tories on the committee.

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The Tories continue to follow George Bush's playbook. Use every means available to thwart accountability. Is there any issue the Liberals, and NDP and Bloc care enough about to stand up to the Tories. Peacenik is beginning to think that none of these parties derserve Peacenik's vote in any future election.

Robocops Employ Scary Crowd-Stopping Technology at Pittsburgh Protests

Long range accoustic devices torture everyone's ears. I guess crowd control theory doesn't acknowledge "bystanders" anymore. Peacenik doesn't think this weapon has ever been used in Canada. But the G8 is coming to Huntsville next June. One of Peacenik's correspondents has already informed Peacenik that the police have rented a large empty building to be used as a prison in Muskoka during the G8 conference. Police are also going to be deploying razor wire to protect the G8 leaders.

That's right folks. Muskoka will be militarized so that Harper can hobnob with G8 leaders. Will long range accoustic devices be deployed? Peacenik thinks it may be time to start complaining now. And Peacenik is cheering for the black flies.

By Mike Ferner, After Downing Street. Posted September 28, 2009.

An arsenal of "crowd control munitions," was deployed with a massive, overpowering police presence in Pittsburgh during last week's G-20 protests.

No longer the stuff of disturbing futuristic fantasies, an arsenal of "crowd control munitions," including one that reportedly made its debut in the U.S., was deployed with a massive, overpowering police presence in Pittsburgh during last week's G-20 protests.

Nearly 200 arrests were made and civil liberties groups charged the many thousands of police (most transported on Port Authority buses displaying "PITTSBURGH WELCOMES THE WORLD"), from as far away as Arizona and Florida with overreactingand they had plenty of weaponry with which to do it.

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